This project is built on the Midnight Network.
A lightweight, contract-focused catalog of Compact
smart contracts for Midnight, Cardano's
privacy-preserving sidechain. Each contract is a standalone workspace with its
source, witnesses, a phase-1 in-memory simulator, and a Vitest suite, plus a
beginner-friendly docs.md walkthrough.
This repo is deliberately not a full dApp. There is no UI and no CLI. The
focus is the contracts and their tests, so you can clone, read, run npm test,
and start modifying without standing up any infrastructure. For an end-to-end
example (contract + React + wallet), see the separate starter template.
- Node.js (v23+) & npm (v11+)
- Compact developer tools (the
compactcompiler; this repo pins toolchain+0.31.0)
You do not need Docker, a node, a wallet, or a proof server to run the test suites. Phase-1 tests execute entirely in memory.
# install all workspaces
npm install
# build all contracts
npm run build| Contract | Folder | What it teaches | Guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Counter | counter-contract/ |
The minimal contract: public ledger state and a single transition circuit. No privacy. | docs.md |
| Bulletin Board | bulletin-board-contract/ |
Witnesses and selective disclosure: mixing private state into a public contract. | docs.md |
| Unshielded Token | unshielded-token-contract/ |
Public tokens: mint, send, and receive an unshielded token plus native NIGHT. Ported verbatim from the official docs example. | docs.md |
| Shielded Token | shielded-token-contract/ |
Privacy-preserving Zswap coins: mint, send, and receive shielded tokens (hidden value/owner). Ported verbatim from the official docs example. | docs.md |
Each workspace follows the same five-part pattern:
src/<name>.compact → the contract source
↓ compact compile
src/managed/<name>/ → generated TypeScript API, ZK keys, circuit IR
src/witnesses.ts → private-state type + witness functions
src/test/simulators/ → in-memory CircuitContext harness (phase-1)
src/test/<name>.test.ts → Vitest suite
Start with the Counter and its walkthrough. It
is the smallest contract and the docs.md template every other guide follows.
cd counter-contract
npm run compact # compile the .compact source
npm test # run the Vitest suite
